


Day 17- Eyes

by Broken_Clover



Series: Goretober 2019 [16]
Category: Guilty Gear
Genre: Blood and Gore, Canon-Typical Violence, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Eye Trauma, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-18
Updated: 2019-10-18
Packaged: 2020-12-21 15:10:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21076940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Broken_Clover/pseuds/Broken_Clover
Summary: When Anji had watched Baiken fall and not get up, for the first time in a long while, he didn’t know what to do.





	Day 17- Eyes

When Anji had watched Baiken fall and not get up, for the first time in a long while, he didn’t know what to do.

The fight had been downhill ever since they’d started. For all their confidence and self-assurance, they _had_ known that they were walking into one of the biggest Gear nests on earth. _On purpose._ Allegedly even Kiske and his army had barely been able to make it out alive when they walked in on accident.

At the time, it had only encouraged Baiken more. “Of course they did.” They had said, with a confident glimmer in their one good eye. “Panicking and running around like a bunch of headless fucking chickens. We could do better, just the two of us.”

While there wasn’t exactly much of a way to compare that sort of thing, Anji couldn’t say that they were doing well. They were used to Gears. They’d killed hundreds, all on their own. But here, a hundred had all come at once. Then another hundred. Then another. Their numbers only seemed to grow as they fought their way to the center of the nest, in the hope of finally destroying whatever was at the center that was making all these damn things in the first place.

Anji had feared that the battle wouldn’t turn out in their favor, even before the endless waves had begun wearing them down. Maybe it was his own doubt that had ultimately crippled their efforts. Maybe it didn’t matter. All that mattered now was that he only had Zessen to protect him, at least one of his feet was broken, and that Baiken was lying completely helpless out of his reach.

Something snagged against his back, tearing his sleeve and making a jab of pain run up his spine. Anji managed to blow it back with a hard swipe, but the movement immediately made him flinch from how it aggravated his back and foot. Dammit, why had he let himself get distracted? He wouldn’t be any use to either of the if he was dead.

He could hear his heart pounding in his ears as he tried to shove everything in between him and his companion out of the way. On more than one instance, it resulted in more cuts and scratches on his arms. His lenses had been shattered, so everything was slightly fuzzy and out of focus. But Baiken’s pink-and-crimson smear on the ground was clear to him, especially how the red was slowly overtaking the pink.

“C’mon, get up! Don’t tell me you’re down for the count already?!” They would have thumped him over the head for saying something like that, but if that was what gave them enough energy to keep going, so be it. Anji dragged them to their feet, tossing a limp arm over his shoulder before trying to break out into a run with the energy that he no longer had. The Gears continued to try and pile on the both of them, and all Anji could do was knock them away with the one fan in his one free hand and hope that he was running in the right direction.

“Baiken?! Baiken, come on, wake up!” He shouted, legs burning from the effort of dragging the extra dead weight with him. “Say something!”

“Mh...will you shut the fuck up already?” An irritable voice slurred out by his side.

Anji felt like crying, for a number of reasons. He tried to channel that energy into running. The Gears were gradually lightening up as he ran. There were still a few that he was narrowly outpacing but the rest were either already dead or bored of them.

“Baiken, can you hear me?!”

“Anji…?” Baiken’s voice was as gruff as it always was, but there was something else mixed into their tone. “Anji, where are you?”

“I’m right here, Baiken, I’m-” At first he attributed it to delirium and blood loss. As the two of them lurched forward, Baiken’s blood-drenched bangs plastered against their cheek and he realized that he could no longer make out their one good eye from a long set of talon marks that had ripped a good chunk of the flesh away.

He failed to ignore the cold dread that was seeping into his body at the sight. The lack of focus on his surroundings resulted in something catching under his boot and tripping him up.

The two of them hit the rocky ground hard. Anji cried out from the force, latching onto a spot on his chest that he was sure now housed at least one broken rib. He couldn’t get his legs to work well enough to stand up again. With one arm, he could barely manage dragging his beaten-up body over to Baiken. 

“Come on! Baiken, please, wake up!” He shook their limp body, struggling to think of anything else to do. A few stray Gears were approaching what had now become a very easy meal. Their claws were remarkably sharp, and there was nothing separating them from the injured humans aside from a few hundred feet…

...and a cartoon bomb?

The object in question exploded before Anji could properly process the sight of it. The force blew his hair back and sent a nasty headache pulsing through his temples, but when the smoke finally cleared, the Gears had vanished.

“Did somebody call a doctor~?”

A massive, lanky silhouette fell over Anji. He wasn’t sure how to name the emotion he felt when he saw Faust landing on the ground in front of him. It seemed there was no need to, anyway. As soon as he caught sight of them, Faust immediately got busy carefully picking them up in his long arms.

Anji lacked the energy to object, even if he wanted to. The ensuing feeling of traveling through a warp added a dose of vertigo to his headache, and the concept of passing out was becoming more and more appealing. The only thing that kept him from it was Baiken. He tried to keep a close eye on their limp body, unable to tell if they still breathed with all the movement and his hampered vision.

The door dropped them off right outside a small building in a place he didn’t recognize. Or had Faust walked part of the way? Maybe he had blacked out for a moment. It was hard to remember.

The world spun again, though thankfully into something soft and comforting. He watched the man carry Baiken to a different bed, laying them down much more carefully. The doctor was saying something that he could only half make out. Broken things, drugs, blood-

“-need to get to work immediately. Going to sedate the both of you, so you don’t injure yourselves more-”

“W-wait, stop-” Anji spoke up.

“Yes?”

“You have to do something for me.”

“What is it?”

…

“WHAT?! You can’t be serious, you’ve already lost a significant amount of blood!”

…

“Are you sure? I can’t be certain if this isn’t just the shock talking. Do you know what you’re asking me to do?”

…

“...Very well, then.”

There wasn’t much more that he could do in such a state. Anji had somehow managed to cling onto Zessen through everything, and he thumbed over the patterns carved in the wood as several stings of pain worked their way up and down his arms. From the brief moments of coherency, he could see Faust doing the same to Baiken, setting up a blood transfusion, and injecting in whatever cocktail or drugs would be enough to keep them alive and unconscious. He didn’t worry about the details. He was already past that point.

He let his eyes rest for a moment. When they opened again, Faust was standing over him with a long syringe. Or was it a cable? He couldn’t make out the details.

“I’m going to sedate you now, Mr. Mito. I’ll ask you one last time, are you sure that this is what you want?”

Somehow, he managed a frail nod. “If it’s for Baiken, then I would never joke about such a thing.”

Anji wasn’t really sure what happened next. He could feel his mind unraveling, ultimately crumbling underneath him and leaving him to fall into the blissful darkness.

++++++

“God...f-fuck, Anji, what the hell?”

Even while half-asleep, Baiken knew how to be angry. And they liked to think that they had a good reason to be. It felt like a truck had run them over, and as much as they blinked, everything seemed to be dark. Had the building blown a fuse? Served them right for staying at that shitty rickety motel-

“You're awake? Ah, and already kicking. I shouldn't be surprised."

“Fucking-” They hissed, cutting off when they realized that they recognized the voice. “You?! Why the hell are you here, demon?!”

“Please, Baiken, I have to ask you to relax.”

“Why the fuck should I!?”

Faust huffed. “Well, you’re going to tear out your stitches, for one. And I can’t exactly take off the bandages with you moving.”

With a great deal of reluctance, Baiken let their muscles relax. They immediately noticed the pain lessening as they did so. Footsteps approached on their side, and hand began peeling back the fabric that had been wrapped over their face.

“There we are!” Faust announced cheerily, pulling off the last of the gauze. “And looking remarkably well, too! I was a bit concerned about performing so many emergency procedures, but-”

“You WHAT?!”

He recoiled, raising both hands in a calm gesture. “Everything is alright, I promise. You were simply in such a poor state when your friend arrived, I was a bit worried you wouldn’t pull through.”

Friend...? “Damn that bastard, where the hell is he!?” They tried to shout, but the dry throat made it crackle pathetically halfway through.

Faust tilted his head, gesturing with one hand. “What are you talking about? He’s right next to you.”

Their head snapped towards where he was pointing. Anji was motionless in the next bed over, swathed in white and thankfully hooked up to fewer machines than they seemed to be. Hell, he looked to be in pretty good shape, all things considered.

At least, that’s what they wanted to say, until they noticed the web of bandages covering the right half of his face.

“Is...is he okay?” Baiken didn’t care. Not really. Anji was good at getting himself out of scrapes, so if something major had actually happened, then it was probably his fault. Yeah. Not something they had to worry about...

Instead of replying, Faust approached with a hand mirror, which he offered up. “I think this should do the job well enough.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” The samurai snapped. “Wasting my time, more like.”

Still, Baiken stared into the mirror. Disheveled pink hair framed their face, same as it always did. A few more bandaged spots that would probably leave scars, but they’d seen worse. A single eye stared back at them...

...had it always been brown?

A few strangled Japanese curses creaked out in a familiar tone. Baiken immediately dropped the mirror and threw the sheets back.

“No, no, don’t do that!” Faust cried, as thought it would stop them. “You shouldn’t be standing- !”

In a flash, Baiken climbed on top of the man, dragging along an IV drip and several ECG sensors that had disconnected from the force of being pulled. The movement had torn open a few stitches, and red blotches were soaking through the bandages, but all they focused on was grabbing Anji by shoulders and shrieking bloody murder.

_“WHAT DID YOU DO?! WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO?!”_

“Heh heh. You’re up. Good. I was worried…”

It didn’t quell their anger. “You DUMBASS! I never would have asked you to- !”

“I knew you wouldn’t.” He replied quietly, removing himself from their grip and sitting up in bed. “I did it because I wanted to.”

And in a moment, the anger turned into something else. Anji managed to catch Baiken as they slumped.

“Y-you didn’t…”

“Heh. It’s all better now, see?” Anji grinned, laughing a laugh that wasn’t nearly as aggravatingly bright as it normally was. “Now we match!”

“You idiot...you fucking idiot…” Baiken weakly smacked his chest, shoulders shaking with tears that refused to fall.

“Isn’t it nice, Baiken? Aren’t you happy…?”


End file.
